Lode Runner
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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The Bungeling Empire has stolen a huge cache of gold from its rightful owners, and your mission is to infiltrate its treasury and recapture it. This entails progressing through 150 screens of platforms, ladders and ropes.

The Empire has sent robotic guards down to protect the gold, and contact with any of these will cost you a life. Your method of escaping them is to press fire to dig a hole in their line of movement, thus causing them to fall in briefly, allowing you to move across the gap safely. Once all the gold has been collected, a ladder allowing you to move onto the next screen is added. Completing these screens often requires forward planning and precision.

This was one of the earliest games to include a level editor, allowing the creation of new level designs with no programming skill.

Alternate Titles
"Miner" -- Working title
"LR" -- Common abbreviation
"Lode Runner for WonderSwan" -- WonderSwan title

Trivia

Lode Runner was named #80 overall among the “150 Best Games of All Time” by Computer Gaming World Magazine (15th Anniversary Issue -- November 1996).

An Amiga version is mentioned in the French manual, ported by Loriciels' Annecy studio, but beyond that, no information of an official Amiga port exists.

One of the biggest ever Lode Runner competitions took place during Japan's World Fair in August 1985. Gameplay was shown on a massive Sony Jumbotron (then the world's largest television at 80x150 feet). Over 3,000 people entered from across Japan and only 50 were selected to try their luck at achieving the highest score within three minutes. 12 year old Yasutaka Fujii was proclaimed the winner. 

The original Lode Runner proved so popular a coin-op version was commissioned and appeared in 1984 housed in its own cabinet and complete with artwork.

Lode Runner was enhanced for the Apple Macintosh (and packaged as such). It remains the only 16-bit version of the first game and has possibly the highest resolution at 512x342 pixels on a crisp monochrome display. This version also features added mouse support for in-game configuration within windows, pull-down menus, pop-up dialogue boxes, and level creation. The game itself is played using the keyboard.

Lode Runner was being ported to the Atari Lynx but was abandoned while in a fairly advanced state.

While they both spawned strings of sequels to lead series of their own, Lode Runner and Choplifter can be considered to share not just human sprite animation, but a "game world" along with Will Wright's Raid on Bungeling Bay. All three games (all published by Brøderbund) ultimately featured the militaristic denizens of the Bungeling Empire as the primary antagonists.

Daron Stinnett, the executive producer of several LucasArts games including Dark Forces and Outlaws, was a beta tester for Doug Smith back when Lode Runner's working title was Miner. Daron lived just down the street from Doug and was one of the kids who made levels for the game too.

The NES version of Lode Runner was marketed by Brøderbund as part of its "Action Series."

The game was re-developed and re-released under three different names. The best known PC versions are Sierra's Lode Runner: The Legend Returns and Lode Runner 2.

Lode Runner was voted #52 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll published by Game Informer Magazine (Issue 100, August 2001).

The "human" animation is uncannily similar to the human animation in Choplifter.

When Broderbund bought the game they demanded that it contain 150 levels. The creative solution Smith came up with was to give the kids in his neighbourhood the level designer, promising to pay each kid who make a good level.

The original version of Lode Runner was called Miner. The creator, Doug Smith, tried to sell it to four companies, Electronic Arts, Epyx, Sirius Software, and Brøderbund. Broderbund offered him $10,000 and 23% of future profits and he actually rejected an offer of $100,000 without royalties. The man clearly believed that his game would be successful! 

Strings found in the game code:

 If the original MASTER disk fails to run, return it to Broderbund for replacement. COPIES WILL NOT WORK. 

 Thanks for the run. See ya' next time.

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Description

Lode Runner ist an outstanding platform game, where gold treasures need to be collected in 150 levels. Up to 5 enemies try to make it hard for you. You can run, use the ladders, climb along the bars and collect treasures. As soon as you have collected all the boxes, a melody rings and up until now invisible ladders can appear. If you have reached the most upper line of the screen, you will get into the next level. When you have finished all 150 levels, the game starts again with raised speed.
You cannot jump, but you carry a weapon with you, with which you can dissolve the bricks for a certain time. No matter how far you will fall, you cannot get hurt. There is no time limit but the guards which reappear after their death keep you busy.

The game engine is astonishingly fluent, so you can e.g. press the joystick right and up and your man will walk to the right until it reaches a ladder and will then head up without any additional joystick movement. Another feature is the game editor, with which you can format an empty disk with the the Lode Runner format and save up to 150 self-made levels. You can copy or move whole levels, and the professional version even allows you to create levels with automatic gamesets.

Design

The game shows a typical side platform view on one screen. Every screen consists of a black background, red stones and walls (in gamesets of other parties different colours as e.g. blue or green is used), white ladders and poles and mint coloured guards. Your man and the guards are the only animated parts in every screen, so the atmosphere is calm. There is no background music, which adds to the calm atmosphere. Selective sound effects can be heard when collecting treasures, creating traps in the walls, while falling, when all treasures have been collected and the level can be exited and when you lose a life.

The game can be controlled by the joystick in port 2. The man is moved by pressing the joystick in the corresponding direction. By pressing left/right + fire the field left or right of the man is dissolved and a hole appears.

Controls

in the demo mode
show highscore list	Return 
{{{Width}}} Joystick controls (game starts after press of button)	Ctrl +J 
Icon tastatur.png Keyboard controls (game starts after press of button)	Ctrl +K 
switch to edit mode	Ctrl +E 

Controls in the game	{{{Width}}}{{{Width}}} Joystick	Icon tastatur.png Keyboard
switch controls	Ctrl +K  ⇒Icon tastatur.png	Ctrl +J  ⇒{{{Width}}}
Up	Joystick forwards	I 
Down	Joystick backwards	K 
Left	Joystick left	J 
Right	Joystick right	L 
Dig	press fire button	U =left O =right
Switch digging (in front or behind the player)	Ctrl +D 	not available
Switch on and off level scrolling (eye on and off)	Ctrl +Y  or Ctrl +Z 
Kill the character (when you're stuck...)	Ctrl +A 
Pause	Run/Stop 
Game speed	- =slower / + =faster
Reset (end of game)	Ctrl +R 
Add one life (Cheat: no highscore)	Ctrl +F 
Go to next level (Cheat: no highscore)	Ctrl +U 

in edit mode

(each command can be aborted with Run/Stop )
Initialise a formatted disk	I 	preparing an own level disk
Playing from one levelonwards	P 	no highscore if start level>1
Level editor	E 	does not work with the game disk
Copy level	M 	does not work with the game disk
Delete level	C 	does not work with the game disk
Delete highscores	S 	does also work with game disk

in the level editor

Save level	Ctrl +S 	Insert wall at cursor position	1 
Leave editor	Ctrl +Q 	Insert stone at cursor position	2 
One level forward	Ctrl +F 	Insert ladder at cursor position	3 
One level backward	Ctrl +B 	Insert pole at cursor position	4 
Cursor up	I 	Insert trap at cursor position	5 
Cursor down	M 	Insert exit ladder at cursor position	6 
Cursor to the left	J 	Insert treasure at cursor position	7 
Cursor to the right	K 	Insert guard at cursor position (max.5)	8 
Delete field at cursor position	0 	Insert player at cursor position (max.1)	9 

Points

Level complete	1.500 points
Collect box of gold	250 points
Guard falls into trap	75 points
Guard dies in trap	75 points

Cheats

(Hint: After using the cheat the player cannot enter the highscore)
CONTROL+F	each 1 extra life
CONTROL+U	level jump

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Description from the packaging:

An action game and game generator by Doug Smith.
Spellbinding action!
You are a highly trained galactic commando deep in enemy territory. Power hungry leaders of the repressive Bungeling Empire have stolen a fortune in gold from the peace loving people, and you've just discovered their secret underground treasury. Your goal? To recover every last ingot of Bungeling booty. You'll be running, jumping, and climbing heroically, solving perplexing puzzles, and drilling passageways through stone floors and barriers using your laser drill pistol. You'll need more than fleet feet and good looks to get through this mission alive. You'll need your quick wits and brains!

Create your own games!
Lode Runner is more than a fast-action game. It's a game generator that lets you design your own puzzles and scenes! You can move, add, and take away countless ladders, floors, trap doors, crossbars, gold chests, and Bungeling enemies. It's easy, and there's no end to the variations, challenge and fun!
An arcade style game with 150 different puzzles and scenes.
Design your own puzzles! No programming knowledge required!
Keyboard or joystick controlled.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/lode-runner
http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Lode_Runner
